ARTICLE: From Damascus to Nürnberg – Vocalist, Mado Asfour – Shares His Complete Journey

The Dream Survived: The Journey of Syrian Metal Vocalist Mado Asfour

At 13 years old, Mado Asfour discovered metal through a ringtone on a friend’s phone. He was in Damascus, Syria. He had no internet at home. He had no idea where this music would take him. He only knew that something about it felt different. The ringtone was “Night Eternal” by Moonspell.

“When I heard the intro, something touched my soul. It felt strange, but in a good way.”

That moment changed everything. Mado started going to internet cafés, searching for metal and discovering a world that was almost impossible to access in Damascus. Mayhem. Dimmu Borgir. Behemoth. Emperor. Cradle of Filth. Death. Morbid Angel. Cannibal Corpse. Six Feet Under. He downloaded songs onto CDs and took them home to listen to them again and again. There were few concerts. Few places to buy metal CDs, cassettes or shirts. And almost no realistic path for a teenager dreaming of becoming an extreme-metal vocalist.

So Mado created his own path.

He taught himself how to growl. He practised every day. He watched live performances and imagined himself standing in front of the crowd. At the time, that dream seemed almost impossible. He eventually formed BLACK VOID OCEAN, an underground atmospheric black-metal project in Damascus. There was no professional studio. No proper recording equipment. Some recordings were made on phones. Rehearsals had to remain underground because of neighbours and the possibility of police intervention.

The production was far from professional. The passion wasn’t.
Then the war came.

Mado left Syria in 2012, first travelling to Jordan and later Malaysia. Eventually he reached Turkey, where he worked exhausting 12-hour days. But on the weekends, he went to metal shows. Even though he knew another 12-hour shift was waiting for him the next morning.

“I was exhausted, but I didn’t want to waste a single metal show.”

For the first time, metal became more than music coming through headphones and downloaded CDs. He was seeing bands live, meeting musicians and experiencing a scene he had once only imagined.

In 2015, Mado arrived in Germany. The dream came with him.

In Berlin, he started making music again with a group of teenagers. There was no official band name and no professional recording. Mostly, they jammed. But the goal was still the same: Get on stage. After moving to Nürnberg, Mado became involved in the local underground scene and eventually performed vocals with SMOG.

Then came 9 June 2018. Bela Lugosi, Nürnberg.

Mado stepped onto a stage for his first concert as a vocalist. Friends travelled from different cities to see him. Some were Syrians who had known him back in Damascus and were now living in different European countries. They had known the dream before there was ever a stage. Now they were watching it happen. The venue was packed. Mado was terrified. But he went on stage. And he made it. The first stage wasn’t the end of the journey. It was the beginning of another chapter.

On 14 March 2019, Smog released its first EP, Hiraeth. Mado continued developing as a vocalist and songwriter, with his lyrics becoming part of the band’s identity.

Then came another milestone.

In 2021, Mado also performed with KLENDATHU, which released its split/EP Shower Never, Blastbeats Forever. In November 2022, Smog released its first full-length album, Nuor. The album marked another step forward from those early underground days, taking the music from rehearsal rooms and small stages into a recorded full-length release. By then, Mado was no longer simply the teenager dreaming about standing on stage. He was building a musical history of his own.

Years later, in 2023, he reunited musically with members of his former band Klendathu and STILLBORN SOILED was born. The band developed a sound built around Death Metal and Sludge, with Syrian roots running through its identity. On 12 July 2025, Stillborn Soiled released Cerebral Carnage. The band then began pushing further into the European underground, performing across Germany and internationally, including shows in the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and Slovenia.

But one performance brought Mado’s entire journey into focus: Nürnberg Planetarium. A Death Metal concert beneath the stars.
The same person who once listened to downloaded metal CDs in Damascus was now performing extreme metal under a planetarium dome in Germany. And this time, he wasn’t wondering if he could make it onto the stage. People were standing in line waiting to get inside. The event, Nebular Nightmare, brought Stillborn Soiled together with Anomic and Maat beneath the Planetarium’s dome, combining extreme metal with immersive cosmic projections. The City of Nürnberg officially announced the event, describing Stillborn Soiled as a band with members from Damascus and Nürnberg, combining oriental musical traditions with Death Metal and Sludge. Local media also featured Mado as one of the event’s initiators and organisers.

For Mado, it was more than another concert. It was a full-circle moment. From a teenager in Damascus discovering metal through a phone ringtone…
to underground rehearsals and recordings made on phones…
to leaving Syria…
to working exhausting shifts in Turkey just to make it to metal shows… to arriving in Germany…
to facing his first packed audience…
to releasing music with different underground projects…
to finally performing a sold-out Death Metal show beneath the stars.
And the story isn’t finished.

Today, Mado continues performing with Stillborn Soiled and remains connected to NarGate, a project rooted in the Damascus underground scene where his journey began. He also works at the Nürnberg Planetarium and in social work, while continuing to build his life around music, community and the extreme-metal underground. His journey can be summed up in one sentence:

“The war burned the world where my dream began. It never burned the dream itself.”

From Damascus to Nürnberg.
From a ringtone to the stage.
From surviving the journey to making noise.
The dream survived.

Photo Credits: https://www.instagram.com/foto_slay?stkn=MTg3djY1bnY0M2Q1bQ== and https://www.instagram.com/maureensfocus?stkn=aXZ5Y2Q5a3VnMnp5